The federal budget earlier this week blew kisses to Lower Mainland mayors, disappointed B.C. business groups and provided a political Viagra pill to the Conservatives.

Everyone knows the Canadian economy is sluggish, oil prices are down and interest rates are low. So, deficit spending may well be in order. Certainly, the mayors are welcoming all the new affordable housing and infrastructure spending.

Business groups are less enthused. The Business Council of B.C. tepidly acknowledged the budget is “appropriate for today’s challenging economic times.” And the B.C. Chamber of Commerce said it “welcomes some strategic investments in the new federal budget.”

But both business organizations added big caveats. They expressed concern that the Liberals have failed to prioritize a return to balanced budgets.

“The occasional deficit budget may be good politics but as a way forward, it’s dangerous fiscal management,” said Jon Garson, president and CEO of the chamber.

“Large deficits rack up debt and burden taxpayers with wasteful interest payments — money that should be going to our health care, education and infrastructure needs.”

Justin Trudeau has long insisted he is a very different politician from his father. It would be unfortunate if he turned out to be the same as his father in just one important way: his financial legacy to Canada.

Trudeau Sr. left Canada in a state of fiscal ruin, as a lot of voters are old enough to recall.

Sunny ways are good, but it is crucial that Justin Trudeau start telegraphing soon that he not only intends to better the plight of aboriginals and the middle class but also that he is someone who can do restraint.

It will be deeply troubling to many that Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s first budget has forecast a 2016-2017 deficit three times that promised during the Liberal campaign last fall. And, notwithstanding a former promise of a balanced budget by the end of the mandate, a $17.7-billion deficit has been forecast for 2019.

This in itself tells a story of how quickly debts and deficits can spiral out of control.

All of which accords a terrific political opportunity for the Conservatives, who have been looking entirely irrelevant since Stephen Harper lost the top job and went into virtual hiding.

The official Opposition party is preparing for a leadership contest in 2017 and, until now, has appeared in desperate need of a makeover.

With a shiny new team in town, keen to reverse so many of the previous government’s policies, Conservatives have been left to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap, defending their record rather than proposing fresh ideas.

This is likely to change. Mainly because Trudeau shows no sign of shifting his policy orientation. Unlike Christy Clark’s business-minded Liberals in B.C., Trudeau leads a group that sees spending — mostly program spending rather than investments to goose growth — as an answer to most of the country’s existing challenges.

It may be the answer for now, as some economists assert. But the PM needs to start projecting a more balanced approach to keep the business community and, more generally, taxpayers, on side.

The public will not be thrilled in coming years to hear that Canada’s debt interest payments — a hefty $27 billion this year — will balloon by $9 billion in five years — more if interest rates rise.

Yes, people feel squeezed and want government spending, but they also know from their personal lives how hard it is to get out of debt. And the business community at every turn will be reminding them of that.

Trudeau, in failing to at least champion fiscal rectitude, is giving the Conservatives a raison d’être they had lately lost.

They now have a political opening to embrace the cause of deficit elimination and debt reduction: one that will have resonance as the years go by and Canada’s debt just keeps on growing — from $648 billion to an anticipated $733 billion by 2020-2021.

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